Something I explained to my 12 yo: When you're a little kid, your parents create your environment. Then there's a second stage where your peers do. Then for ambitious people there's a third stage where you create your own environment by choosing your own peers.
Taught 8 yo a rule of thumb for avoiding cults and cult-like things: Avoid groups that tell you not to talk to your family.
My mother on childraising: “All you have to do is love them and show them the world.”
Be skeptical of political opinions that don't survive having kids.
Little kids emulate big kids, but it works the other way too. Nothing makes a 6 yo try harder to do something than a 3 yo who can.
Having multiple kids makes it clear how much is nature vs nurture. How much momentum character has. At best you can steer it.
It's depressingly common to see parents staring at their phones while pushing their kids on the swings. Distraction addiction.
Instead of pushing my kids, I try to help them find the interests that will pull them. History suggests pull has more power.
Was explaining to my 7 yo the dumb things teenagers do, and realized most are caused by caring too much what their friends think.
One of the most dangerous things to lose as you get older is your willingness to look like a fool.
Something I recently taught my kids: Like other animals, people are most dangerous when they feel threatened.
Don't mock anything done in earnest just because it seems weird.
New game with 5 yo: Make an animal noise, then describe the imaginary animal that makes it.
Something I taught my kids last night: Everyone has something they're unusually good at. When you meet someone try to figure out what it is.
One of my tricks is to treat them like adults intellectually. It's remarkable how often it works. Adults talk down to kids way more than they need to or even realize.
A simple rule I taught my 9 yo today: If you can't figure something out, figure out how to figure it out.
Whenever I teach little kids something, I'm always trying harder to teach the meta-lessons, like breaking down a problem into smaller parts, or that practice makes you better.
A competition where 10% of kids win awards is ok, and one where 100% do is ok too (though it fools no kid over 4), but a competition where 80% of kids win awards is cruel.
One of the best things you can be for your kids is an audience. Which doesn't mean being uncritically approving. That doesn't fool kids over 2. It means caring about what they care about.
To lecture someone on morality is implicitly to assume moral superiority over them. Adults do this to children, but not (unless they are clergy) to other adults.